During a tense meeting at the White House, President Trump playfully presented “Trump 2028” hats to leading Democrats, just as discussions escalated over a potential government shutdown.
On Tuesday evening, the president shared several embarrassing images on Truth Social, featuring Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) seated next to the prominently displayed merchandise.
One of the images captures a smiling Trump, who pointed at Jeffries from behind the Resolute Desk with the hats clearly visible in front of him.
Later, Jeffries recounted the incident on CNN, noting that the hats seemed to have appeared out of nowhere during the conversation.
“The hats just randomly showed up in the middle of our meeting on the desk. It was incredibly unusual,” he commented.
“I turned to [Vice President] JD Vance, who was sitting next to me, and asked, ‘Isn’t this odd?’ He just replied, ‘No comment,’” Jeffries added.
“That was pretty much the end of it,” he noted.
In addition to the hats, Trump also trolled Jeffries with a digitally manipulated clip that depicted the House minority leader in a sombrero, complemented by a mariachi band of Trumps serenading him.
These bold posts from the president came mere hours before the federal government partially shut down at midnight on Wednesday, following a failed short-term funding bill that saw nearly all Senate Democrats vote against it.
This shutdown marks the first since December 2018, which resulted in a suspension of non-essential government activities and saw thousands of federal workers either furloughed or compelled to work without compensation for 35 days until a temporary funding agreement was reached.
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